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Three medals guaranteed at youth worlds

New Zealand's sailors have guaranteed themselves at least three medals with a day to spare at the youth sailing world championships in Corpus Christi, including gold to Josh Armit in the Laser Radial.

Josh Armit on his way to winning gold in the boy's Laser radial. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.

Armit won his first race of the day and backed it up with a second to build an unassailable seven-point lead over Argentina's Juan Cardozo with only one race remaining tomorrow. The 16-year-old joins an illustrious list of Kiwis to achieve that feat in the boy's single-handed dinghy following in the footsteps of the likes of Sir Russell Coutts (1981), Dean Barker (1990) and Sam Meech (2009).

Armit capped off a successful day for the NZL Sailing Foundation youth team, with Seb Lardies and Scott McKenzie guaranteeing themselves a medal in the boy's 29er and Veerle ten Have wrapping up a medal in the girl's RS:X. The colour of those medals is yet to be determined but both go into their final race with a hold on second.

A fourth medal is also a possibility in the Nacra 15, with Greta Stewart and Tom Fyfe still second but only four points separate second and fourth meaning it will come down to tomorrow's final race. The Argentine pair of Teresa Romairone and Dante Cittadini have been the outstanding combination all week and have already guaranteed themselves gold.

Armit will be able to go out and enjoy tomorrow's final Laser Radial race knowing he will finish on top. He's sailed consistently well all week in the breezy conditions, never finishing outside the top six in the 58-strong fleet, and produced two low scores in today's races.

"I'm super stoked to have been able to go out here and achieve what I did this week," he said. "It still hasn't really hit me what I have done but it will be nice to be able to go out there tomorrow and sail my own race.

"It's great to be able to have my name beside those guys [like Coutts, Barker and Meech] now."

Lardies and McKenzie will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Andy Maloney and Sam Bullock (2010) to win a medal in the boy's 29er and they still have an outside chance of winning gold.

It would require something pretty special, however, with the Norwegian pair of Mathias Berthet and Alexander Franks-Penty 10 points ahead. They also need to be mindful of the Australian pair of Henry Larkings and Miles Davey, who are five points behind in third.

"We haven’t really made a plan for tomorrow yet," Lardies said. "Personally, I would rather try to push the Norwegians to be over the line and try to get the gold but it’s going to be pretty tough to do that.

"It feels awesome to win a medal because the last three worlds we have been to we have just missed out on one. Once we looked at the results and knew we had a good gap to fourth it felt pretty good."

They had started the day only one point off the lead but slipped behind on the back of a fourth, sixth and seventh, which Lardies described as a "pretty average day".

Ten Have also had her struggles today, even falling off her board in the last race before recovering from the back of the fleet to finish sixth, but she's otherwise been a model of consistency. Great Britain's Islay Watson won all three races today to wrap up gold but ten Have is in prime position to collect silver with a four-point lead over Italy's Giorgia Speciale.

"If I have a good start I’m fine so I’m going to focus on having a really great start," said ten Have who has had to readjust her mindset throughout the week.

"Before I got here I was aiming for top 10 but once the first day was over I was aiming to win. My goals changed throughout the regatta. I’m pretty stoked."

This year's youth worlds will go down as one of New Zealand's most successful, matching the three the team won in 2002 - Tom Ashley won gold and Geoff Woolley, who has been a coach this week, won silver. A fourth would equal the achievements of the 2015 team as the best medal haul ever.

Results and standings after the fourth day of the youth sailing world championships at Corpus Christi today: